Cooney - hurling league is strange

Conor Cooney admits that he finds the national hurling league format "very strange".

As Cooney and Galway prepare to lock horns with All-Ireland champions Tipperary in Sunday's final, having failed to secure promotion from Division 1B, the Tribe attacker is at something of a loss as to how the structure of the competition makes sense:

"It's a very strange system. Division 1A is very competitive and it's probably a great competition in some ways, but it does have its flaws - there's no perfect system," he comments in The Irish Independent.

"In the last few years it's been a Division 1B team that has gone on [to win it]. Maybe that's down to how tough and competitive Division 1A is, but I'd be lying if I didn't think it was strange. Fair dues, Wexford beat us and they deserve to be up there, so we can have no complaints.

"We have been competitive with Tipperary the last number of years. Two years ago we nipped them by a point in the All-Ireland semi-final and last year they nipped us by a point. They are All-Ireland champions and you have to respect that.

"They have been firing on all cylinders throughout the league, they have been frighteningly good. They have some exceptional forwards and have been putting up big scores. But we are not going to fear anyone, we are not going in with any inferiority complex. We will be up for it."